Dec 7 - Ian said that yesterday afternoon one of the other kids at the bike rack marveled at the washrag he produced from his backpack to wipe down his seat from the rain. Kid: "Wow, your parents must be really smart to think of that."Ian: "Yeah, that's how we are in my family. Smart."

Dec 16 - Ian and I tried to watch "a Christmas Story". He was super upset that Ralphie's little brother couldn't put his arms down and couldn't get up from the snow. Also the father griping while working on the furnace disturbed him. Once Flick got his tongue stuck to the flag pole and the teacher lectured the class about it, we had to turn it off. That's my boy. #sensitivesoul #empath

Dec 17 - Ian is learning how to type contractions (we're, wasn't, doesn't) and punctuation (question marks and exclamation points), both on the keyboard and the iPhone. He's well on his way to writing his first novel.

Dec 23 - Ian, upon discovering a calculator and using it for subtraction: "Oh my God, you have *got* to try this!"

Dec 24 - I installed Scrivener on Ian's iPad today so he can write his stories.

Dec 24 -I came upstairs to turn on the shower for Ian and he was bustling around his room naked."What are you doing?""Cleaning my room. Santa's coming."He won't clean with that fervor again until a date is coming to his apartment.